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Argamata Sea (CCW)
The heart of the Old World at the dawn of human civilization, trade across these waters once formed the basis of humanity’s economic dominance on the world stage. Three of the most ancient of civilizations still grace its shores: the indomitable Mathsra, the iconic Enekhe, and the enchanting Galnea. Evindala, which lies to the west, straddles both the Argamata and the Vadraedic geographically and historically. It is categorized here as part of Eastern Mozra. Mathsra Not simply a nation, but the entire northern region of the Old World, Mathsra has always been a focal point in the saga of human conflict. Undisputed champion of the human world for a thousand years. Broken and humiliated by the latter Wars against the Gods. Viciously divided among the Vadraedic Empires like a deer carcass among wolves. Now, finally free from foreign influence, the Mathsrians are taking steps to revive their old religion and embark on a frenzied path towards modernization and, so its rivals fear, vengeance. Rural and Urban Mathsra Mathsra has been a sleeping giant for long enough. It has always been brimming with cocoa beans, gold ore, and so many people that the streets are packed shoulder to shoulder and neck to neck. But now, one by one, its once stout and stately cities give way to broiling, smog filled bellies of industry, crawling with intestinal piping and crowded with mind-numbing repetition. The workers here muddle through sheet-walls and putrid puddles in a groggy, methodical haze—and yet, there is a stony determination to it. These are a people who are ready to claim the glory at the other end of their grind. They are not the forsaken underclass of so many other smokestack nations. They are patriots and pilgrims. It is a pity that this is the image of Mathsra in the modern age. It was once far more famous for its smooth granite walls topped with greenery, broad wooden gates, and the charming produce-filled carts that went through them. It was a mystical, expansive place, with rainforests, wet plains, jagged mountains, all connected by a sophisticated, well kept road network. It had chiefs and princes, wise and cruel; curious rock formations, and numerous colorful beasts that captured the imagination of the south. This side of Mathsra, with its superstitious, provincial populace, still lives on in its own kind of dream. To quell popular uprisings, Sunyan colonizers taught them that Mathsra never fell at all, and instead allied with the Sunyans against the other island empires. The new Mathsrian government has continued this fiction for the time being—but descendants of Sunyan settlers in Mathsrian lands live in constant fear of the day that deception ceases. Bulwark against the Druids Between the urban hordes, the upper classes, and the far-flung provincials, what binds this nation together? Simple: an existential threat that goes beyond geographic, ethnic, and class differences: the Druids. While the rest of the Old World sleeps easy on Mozra, Mathsra straddles the more hostile continent of Draedah, where it has fought off the feared tree-folk from the north, time and time again. The age-old prestige of the Mathsrians comes from their status as the bulwark of human civilization, a status which makes them essentially unconquerable. They were exploited and abused by the Vadraedic states, yes, but never totally subjugated. On the contrary, every outside force that has attempted to rule them has been “Mitronized,” or turned Mathsrian themselves, giving way to the army of bureaucrats and scores of generals who have centuries of accumulated knowledge and experience fending off the northern threat. The re-emergence of Mathsra, then, comes as no surprise to the close reader of history. Only this time their reckoning with the world, both human and Stranger, will be played out on a much larger scale. Notes: Mathsra was never a colonial power in the modern sense, but its size, wealth, and advancement made it impossible to ignore. Everything from paper and printing, to advanced agricultural methods, to early forms of industrialization were all invented under the Mathsrian Diarchy—a joint rulership between the High King and his mother. Today the Diarchy shares limited power with a Constituent Assembly and a controversial National Welfare Committee. Galnea Once a great rival to Enekhe and Mathsra, Galnea lost much of its land and power not to wars, but to desertification. Like the fabled Guiyant Kingdom of Sarunai to its south, most of Galnea gradually eroded into sand and dust. Today, most of the Galnean population is concentrated along the Argamatan coast and the heavily fortified Yafras river. This region sprouts from the capital, Carpetra, at the mouth of the Yafras and runs as one continuous city all the way through the country’s interior. This is a pleasant, well-off place to live, despite the profound and lasting scars of the Wars against the Gods (the most visible of these being the occasional threat of rogue automaton giants rising from the desert sands). But while Galneans can be fatalistic, like their Enekhite neighbors, they are also much more festive. Their limited agricultural capacity has forced them to develop one of the most distinctive and refined cuisines in the world, and their elegant, efficient square housing complexes with lively rooftop tea lounges are the height of style. Perhaps most surprising: in recent years with the spread of radio culture, Galnea has become somewhat of a center for mass-market music, producing some of the world’s most popular and talented singers and musicians. Notes: Currently a relatively autonomous Sunyan colony, petitioning peacefully for independence. Enekhe Mostly known for its mysticism and occult religion, Enekhe also happens to be the oldest continuous civilization on earth, a land so replete with history that retellings routinely sum up thousands of years in a matter of sentences. Names of kings and heroes are confused, then blur together, then run on into meaningless streaks. So many ruins are laid on top of each other at every corner here that they’ve become indistinguishable from the equally common derelict buildings and dust-clouds. So perhaps the rather brutal and senseless tyrannies and conflicts that plague the nation, the cheapness of life that Enekhites seem so resigned to, is all part of some recognition that all are doomed to insignificance; particles in the engine of fate. What that fate is—well that’s what is worth fighting and dying over. Or alternatively, worth sitting in the hot sun on a packed street for, hawking dates and watching your ancient home crumble into a wasteland. Notes: Former colony of Sunya, now an independent nation/failed state. Capital is Ancrion. Sonrumas is the largest and oldest city. Beyond See also... * The Ferali * The Draede * The Toguir